The invention relates to a method for determining a data transfer speed of a telecommunications network, comprising at least one mobile terminal and a server, said method having the following steps: installing and starting a measurement application on the terminal, installing and starting a user application on the terminal, which during operation transfers data between the terminal and the telecommunications network, and ascertaining a measurement sequence comprising a plurality of individual measured values of a course over time of the data transfer produced by the user application.
For quality assurance and optimisation of telecommunications networks, it is known from the prior art to repeatedly establish voice and/or data links from a terminal to various destinations in order to then draw conclusions with regard to the quality of the used telecommunications network, for example on the basis of the measured call setup time or speed of an Internet connection. In order to make the measurements as realistic as possible, terminals that can be acquired by the end user, for example mobile telephones, are used.
In order to determine the quality of a mobile communication network, what are known as “drive tests” have been carried out for some years now, using measuring vehicles, wherein repeated measurements are taken along a predefined journey route. A plurality of mobile telephones are arranged in the measuring vehicle and are provided with external antennas arranged outside the measuring vehicle in order to create the most comparable conditions possible for different network operators. Such antennas are installed for example in a roof box of the measuring vehicle and are connected to the mobile telephone by means of a coaxial cable. A computer-based control unit provided in the measuring vehicle allows the mobile telephones to repeatedly establish voice and/or data links and records the quality of the used mobile communication network.
Although “drive tests” of this type have become firmly established on account of the high-quality measurement results, the effort associated therewith is not small. Measurements can only be taken when the specific measuring vehicles are set up, and in addition the measurements also can be taken only on roads. Although mobile measuring units that comprise a computer-based control unit and a plurality of mobile telephones do exist, for example in order to take measurements in trains, these measurements also can be taken only when the mobile measuring units are operated by dedicated testers.